September 3rd-Part 1

September 2nd was an afternoon filled with contractions. They were a little more regular, not horribly pain filled but seemed to be getting more consistent and staying between 5-10 minutes.

This is what she looked like at 8:00 on the night of the 2nd. Just eating a bowl of cereal and hanging out with Anderson. I know, I know, no 9 month pregnant woman should look so good:

Seven hours later she looked like this:

She woke me up at 1:00 saying her contractions had gotten stronger and were getting closer together. We timed for about 30 minutes and decided to go to the hospital. Bronwyn went with us and Ansley stayed at home to take care of the little guys.

On the way we called Claudia and she told us she was in another city. Her dad was in the hospital. She told Benay (jokingly) that she was upset with her for having the baby now and she would deal with her later. But for now, she would send her friend to deliver the baby.

She sent Clarice. Outside of Claudia we could not of asked for anyone better. She was smiling and nice and just loved on us. Perfect.

Our pediatrician couldn't be there either so Clarice called Ricardo. Once again, we couldn't have asked for anyone better. He was perfect.

We were admitted into the hospital at 2:15.

Benay got some pain relief medicine from Jair. Benay has had three different times where Jair was our anesthesiologist. He could not have a more gentle and caring spirit.

The hospital has a "only one person allowed in the delivery room" policy. Bronwyn has, since being a small girl, had a heart to help people via a medical profession. She's thought of being a nurse, doctor and physical therapist. She seems to be leaning toward nursing right now and she asked if she could be in the delivery room. We asked Claudia about this and she told us our only shot would be if we delivered Giovanni during the middle of the night when typically no one is around (we are in the scheduled c-section country of the world and so typically those don't begin until 7:00 a.m.). Claudia said she would ask the head nurse. When we had our false labor 9 days earlier I had asked the head nurse and got shot down. I mentioned our conversation with Claudia to Clarice and she said she would ask the nurse. Guess what? She got in and was blessed to see the birth of her little brother. Benay and I have never wanted anyone in the delivery room with us. This has always been a special moment for just the two of us. But I have to confess, this time something just felt right about having Bronwyn in there with us. It was a blessing for Benay and myself as well.

At 4:20 Giovanni was born. He had little bitty shriveled up feet and hands and a receding hairline but he was so very cute (I'm not biased at all).

He was weighed.....

......and then had his height measured.

Here is Dr. Clarice. Can't you just feel her passion for what she does? It's like we knew her for years instead of just for a couple of hours.

Here is Dr. Ricardo with Bronwyn (I promise another picture of his actual face later). Everything I said about Clarice we can ditto for Ricardo. He, like all of us, is an Inter fan. We got to choose the little cap Giovanni is wearing and Ricardo was very pleased that we picked Inter red.

This is Jair. Everything we said about the first two we can say for him except that we actually have known him for years. I can't tell you how many times that morning he whispered encouragement to Benay. We just love him. God blessed us in everything that happened that morning.

More to come.